Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mowing, Birds, and a Butterfly

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I noticed a day or so ago that we are no longer hearing as many birds sing in the morning. Every year, like clockwork, I am gobsmacked when this happens. Oh, how I miss the cacaphony of melodies and calls. I hear them here and there during the day and I definitely see them, but the time of joyous morning singing only lasts about 3½ months. Then it’s over.

Time speeds by much too quickly these days.

I mowed yesterday and, once again, I took on too much. I mowed both the back forty and the corral – very hilly. Then I came in the house and cried because I hate the fact that I just can’t handle as much mowing in one sitting as I used to. Intellectually, I know this and have known this. But in my heart, I hate it. Most of the time I accept this change and modify my work outside accordingly. But sometimes, like yesterday, I forget. I’m okay now, having talked to Don, who always helps me sort through these things. New schedule: back forty one day, corral on a separate day, lilac side of the front lawn on another day, and front lawn? Always needs to be tag-teamed with Don. If for some reason, Don can’t do it, then I mow it over the course of 2 days. Just like Don did when my hand was injured.

Remember before you comment: I LOVE MOWING. I have no intention of hiring it out, nor can we afford it. It’s a good form of exercise for me (and Don) and we look forward to it. I just have to be realistic about what I can accomplish.

It sure looks nice back there this morning.

Speaking of the back forty – that’s where our mullein plants pop up. We always mow around them starting in early spring because they pop up in the lawn and we want to see them thrive. Here’s one of them:

This one is about 4 feet tall, but I’ve had a few that were taller than me and I’m 5’9″ tall.

I took that photo after I had glimpsed a flash of a butterfly’s wing through the den window which sent me outside in the late afternoon. There she was, dining on the coneflowers on the far side of the house.

What a beauty!

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

 

 

Little Avenues of Escape

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Taken from inside the living room.

These two bunnies hang out here a lot. I love watching them. They’ll suddenly start chasing each other in big circles. They make me laugh. This morning we watched them play again. They eat for a while, then suddenly they’re on the move running here and there. And my favorite: when they jump in the air, all four legs lifting them straight up. Pure joy.

It’s still hot, but the humidity broke in a series of thunderstorms that rolled in on Wednesday afternoon, thank goodness. I’m going to do some mowing this morning – the corral and the back forty. I’ve been too immersed in the political world, so I need to shake it off and do something physical. That always helps. I did yank some weeds yesterday and will do some more of that today.

I posted this on my Blythe feed the other day:

“They had a secret meeting.

After sitting at the bargaining table, it seems they feel they aren’t getting enough photo time.

They want a new contract.”

And then, later:

“The holdouts.”

Thank goodness for this little escape from the real world.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Thoughts

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The yucky weather continues. Both Don and I feel groggy and take 1 or even 2 naps during the day. Today, we’ll get more thunderstorms in the afternoon and there’s yet another excessive heat advisory. It feels as if I’ve spent most of my summer indoors, which, believe me, is not the way I like it.

We stand inside the house and watch bunnies chasing each other and the groundhog dining on our grass. And there’s a steady stream of birds at the birdbath. I plan ahead as to when to water outside; if it rained the day before, I’ll do it later in the day. If it hasn’t, I’m loading that huge watering can with water at an early hour, then dousing everything that gets a lot of sun and all the pots on the porch.

I’m really tired of this weather trend.

I finished The Year of Magical Thinking  yesterday morning. I found it so moving and brave and beautifully written. Reading it for the first time at this time in my life is hard. It pushed buttons, things I don’t want to linger on, but fear deeply. I think about death a lot. I think about the now very real possibility of losing Don. Or, Don’s real possibility of losing me. Both of us have said many times that we wouldn’t want to go on without the other. I can’t imagine a life without my husband. I know some of you have lost your partner and/or spouse and have already had to face this. I watched my dad cope with the loss of my mother. He tried very hard to stay active and hopeful but it was devastating for him and he died eighteen months later.

There are no answers. It’s just something that preys on my mind. Life and death.

This is a passage I read out loud to Don the other night when we were reading in bed:

Marriage is memory, marriage is time. “She didn’t know the songs” I recall being told a friend of a friend had said after an attempt to repeat the experience. Marriage is not only time: it is also, paradoxically, the denial of time. For forty years I saw myself through John’s eyes. I did not age. This year for the first time since I was twenty-nine, I saw myself through the eyes of others. This year for the first time since I was twenty-nine I realized that my image of myself was of someone significantly younger. – Joan Didion

Boy, did that hit me. For me, it would be since the age of forty-one.

I’m still pondering passages in that book. I’m still and always worrying about loss and the end of life.

It may not be your cup of tea, but my goodness, what a powerful account of love and marriage and loss and identity and survival.

I’m back to Bring Up the Bodies, the second book in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series. I put it aside when I played catch up with the Daniel Silva spy thrillers. I’m awaiting James Lee Burke’s newest, Clete, from my local library system. It’s been out almost two months and I was #3 in the queue when it finally arrived at our local libraries and I’ve just now reached #1. And that doesn’t mean it’s coming to me this week, so I’m reading what I have and what I’m in the mood for on these hazy, hot and humid days.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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